Back in college when I first started incorporating more vegetables in to my life, my go-to vegetable was broccoli. I’d throw it on everything – broccoli on pizza, broccoli in pasta, broccoli stirred into my stir fry. Then one day the world went crazy for kale, and I feel like broccoli got left behind. It’s so humble and hearty, yet folks always seem to forget about it. It’s not winning awards for the trendiest vegetable, but who knows? Maybe 2017 will be its year in the spotlight?

I love these twice baked sweet potatoes because they’re at least twice as healthy as any version I’ve eaten before. They’re made with nutrient-dense sweet potatoes and stuffed with broccoli. I made a creamy cashew sauce by blending some of the baked sweet potato mash with creamy cashews and rosemary. Before I baked it all, I lightly steamed the broccoli and tossed with lemon, dijon mustard, and scallions. More of that creamy sweet potato sauce goes on top.

This is one of those recipes where the cheese is optional or not optional, depending on your preference. The creamy sweet potato/rosemary cashew filling is so delicious that the cheese isn’t necessary for flavor. But if you ask husband Jack if he wants cheese on anything his answer will always be “yes, please more cheese!”

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pierce the sweet potatoes several times with a fork and place them on the baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, or until tender. Slice in half and scoop out a tablespoon of mash from each half to make room for the filling, ½ cup total. (Use this for the Sweet Potato Cashew Cream.)

Make the Sweet Potato Cashew Cream: In a high-speed blender, combine the water, sweet potato mash, cashews, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Steam the broccoli in a steamer for 5 minutes or until just tender but still bright green.

In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and scallions and stir. Add the steamed broccoli, a few pinches of salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

Fill each potato half with a scoop of the cashew cream, some of the cheddar cheese (if using), the broccoli mixture, more cheese, scallions and sprinkle with the hemp seeds. Bake for 10 more minutes or until the cheese is melted. Garnish with the parsley and/or microgreens and serve with the remaining cashew sauce for drizzling. (tip: if your cashew sauce is too thick to drizzle, stir in a little bit of water until it's a thinner consistency).

We are big fans of sweet potatoes, especially mashed. On an excessive day like Thanksgiving, with so many dishes on offer, it’s hard to eat a whole half of one. They’re big! This looks like a hearty side dish or a light dinner unto itself.
BTW, broccoli is not only delicious but full of calcium.

I love eating Broccoli and Sweet Potato. The dish and its recipe is quite outstanding. The dish is healthy and tasty. The pictures of the dish telling story of the cooking itself. Thanks for providing the info. I will make it and enjoy it. The combination of the two main vegetable is really superb.
Kashish Food, Pulses importer in Auckland New Zealand wishes you best complements.
website http://www.kashishfood.co.nz/pulse.html

As much as I really do love kale, I haven’t abandoned broccoli or all the other lovely veggies of the world. I love how you paired the broccoli with a baked sweet potato and the sweet potato cashew cream, oh my. Lately, I’ve been adding cashew cream to almost everything, but never thought to mix in some sweet potato, genius, my wheels are turning now thinking of all the other possible add ins, yum….

Your sauces cashew always look AMAZINGLY creamy and perfect. Even with a Vitamix I can’t quite recreate. I would love to see a video of you making your blender sauces! I feel like I’m missing something. xoxo

Hi Heather – ok I’ll keep that in mind if we do more videos! In the Vitamix, I just blend until it’s really really smooth – add a little extra water if you would like the consistency a little thinner. To get the cashew sauce to drizzle at the end, I just stirred in extra water until it’s a drizzle-able consistency. Hope that helps!

I absolutely love this recipe. It has become one of our staples! My husband is obsessed with the cashew cream sauce and we have used it on multiple other dishes. We leave out the cheese to make it vegan and it is still hearty and delicious. It’s excellent to prepare ahead of time and heat up at work as well.

Oh my goodness this is amazing!! When I first tasted the cashew cream I looked around my empty kitchen and ended up telling the dog that it was soooooo good because I just had to say it out loud! This will definitely be a recipe I save because it’s an easy, delicious vegan meal that is really filling. Thank you SO much for posting this! 🙂 Just a side note: If you have a Vitamix, you don’t really have to soak the cashews first. I ended up soaking them just while the potatoes cooked and it came out perfect.